


The Best Feeling in the World

by Penthesilea1623



Series: Come Back Home [9]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Babies, Conversations, Gen, post reaper war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 08:55:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1171145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penthesilea1623/pseuds/Penthesilea1623
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wrex and Kaidan share a quiet early morning moment on the anniversary of the end of the Reaper War.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Best Feeling in the World

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by this [picture](http://penthesilea1623.tumblr.com/post/75763086768/kaidan-doesnt-even-bother-to-suggest-that-they)
> 
> and this earlier [photo piece](http://penthesilea1623.tumblr.com/post/74612955958/personal-headcanon-alert-after-the-reaper-war)

Kaidan doesn’t even bother to suggest that they cancel their plans for the anniversary (Crucible Day as it’s starting to be called by almost everyone these days — everyone except for Shepard and the rest of her crew). 

He considers it. David will be barely six weeks old, and Shepard is still supposed to be taking it easy recovering from the unexpected c-section that heralded his arrival. But he can guess what her reaction to that suggestion would be. It’s not like they even set out to have this — party isn’t right and celebration is definitely the wrong word — gathering is all he can come up with. People just showed up. The people Shepard was closest to first, a few days before the second anniversary: Garrus and Tali, then Liara the day before and then the day of the anniversary, in a shuttle piloted by Cortez, Vega and Joker and Traynor. Grunt manages to show up the following year, and Samara makes it the year after. Every year more of their crew mates show up. At least now they know to be prepared, to have dextro and levo food, and enough beds set up for everyone in the old farmhouse that’s become their home on Earth. Shepard would never cancel it, not for any reason.

So he doesn’t bother to suggest it, and as the day gets closer everyone arrives, and everyone, for the first time, includes Wrex, much to Shepard’s delight. He shows up the night before the anniversary, shouting out “Shepard!” when he sees her, but his hug is surprisingly gentle. Someone obviously warned him that Shepard was still recovering from the surgery.

The next morning Kaidan is woken by the familiar cooing and hooting sounds that David makes when he wakes up. He opens an eye to see that it’s barely light out and groans inwardly. It’s been barely four hours since the last feeding: in other words right on schedule. It’s as if the kid read all the baby books and is following them to the letter. Shepard blames Kaidan for that, Kaidan and his obsession with following regulations, claiming the baby has obviously inherited it from him. Before the coos can turn into cries Kaidan rolls out of bed and pulls on some sweats and a t-shirt. Crossing to the crib he looks down and can’t help the smile. David’s a comical looking baby, like a little old man, Shepard says fondly, with lots of dark hair and big eyes that have already changed from the dark blue they were when he was born, to brown. The baby sees him and waves his arms excitedly letting out more coos. “Hey little guy. How about we let your Mom sleep a little longer?” He asks softly, scooping him up, and heading down to the kitchen. He gets one of the bottles they have prepared out the fridge and while it’s warming pours himself some coffee one-handed. Once the bottle’s heated he heads out onto the porch, carefully balancing coffee, bottle and baby.

To his surprise he’s not the only one up: Wrex is sitting on one of the chairs they got specifically for their … bulkier guests, drinking whatever the Krogan equivalent of coffee is. He’s not quite sure just what that is. It’s something Liara’s been handling since the first year, arranging for whatever supplies they might need to be delivered ahead of time.

"Hey, Wrex." 

The Krogan warlord looks over at him. ”Kaidan. That the new hatchling?” 

Kaidan bounces David on his shoulder. ”David Krios Alenko.” 

Wrex gets to his feet and walks over to take a closer look. 

David stares back at him, trying to lift his head to get a better look at him. He manages to hold it steady for a few seconds before it flops forward onto Kaidan’s chest again. He lets out a string of hoots and gurgles, apparently not at all afraid of the Krogan.

Wrex chuckles. ”He’s a talkative little pyjack. Are all human babies so unsteady?”

"At first, yeah."

"It’s a wonder you ever got off planet." Wrex says and returns to his chair.

Kaidan puts his coffee down and sits in one of the rocking chairs, settling David in the crook of his arm. The baby’s arms wave excitedly when he sees the bottle, making Wrex laugh. 

The two of them sit companionably in silence broken only by the sounds of birds, and David’s contented sucking on the bottle.

"It’s a good place you got here. Green. Fertile. Someday we’ll get Tuchanka back to this. I can see why Shepard decided to stay here. Eventually you get tired of killing things. You want to see things grow." 

Kaidan looks out at the orchard. Shepard had said almost the same thing when they’d first come here, when she was recovering after the war. There have been different reactions to Shepard’s leaving the Alliance and retiring from public life. It surprised almost everyone. Made a few people angry. He’d been surprised by how easily and naturally she’d slipped into running the place. 

She’d just smiled. ”I’m a farmer’s daughter Kaidan. I’ve been that all along. The Alliance was just a detour.” 

"It’s a good place to live. A good place to raise a family." He says to Wrex. He looks down at David, who’s fallen asleep, some milk dribbling out of the corner of his mouth. Kaidan wipes it away and smiles down at his son. His and Shepard’s son. It seems a miracle that he’s here at all. That any of them are here.

When he looks up Wrex is smiling at him. ”It’s a good feeling, isn’t it? Being a father. Having what you didn’t think you ever would. Knowing life’ll go on.”

It’s more philosophical than he would have expected from Wrex but then he remembers the genophage and the cure the Krogan had gotten only just as everyone thought the Reapers would destroy everything. He shifts David to his shoulder and pats his back until he lets out a belch that makes Wrex chuckle again. He settles the baby against his chest and rocks gently back and forth a couple of times, watching as David's eyes slowly close as he drifts back to sleep, before he answers.

"After everything that’s happened, everyone we lost…it’s the best feeling in the world, Wrex." 

Wrex grunts in agreement. ”You and Shepard keep at it. Pop out half a dozen more, get everyone else to do the same and we’ll get those populations back up in no time.

Kaidan smiles, picturing Shepard wandering through the orchard, trailed by half a dozen dark haired children. “Yeah.” He says, pressing a kiss to the top of David’s head. ”It’s gonna be quite a ride.”

**Author's Note:**

> photo inspirations and other Mass Effect related things can be found on my tumblr: [Come Back Home inspiration/style references](http://penthesilea1623.tumblr.com/search/Come+Back+Home)


End file.
